She blinked one sleepy eye open but, instead of the drab puke coloured painted brickwork, a vision of dazzling white space greeted her. It was as if she had gone to heaven in the most decadently luxurious bedroom known to women, as her bleary eyes first focussed on an enormous dressing table complete with an impossibly wide mirror. Instead of the cramped postage stamp of a wardrobe that she shared with Denny, a wardrobe spanning the entire width of the room came into view. She thought the 3s were the height of luxury but this was ridiculous.
"Thank God Bodybag's not come to wake me up. I'll have to miss breakfast after all,"
mumbled Lauren sleepily.
"You stupid cow you're back home. Home at last," Broke in the one morning greeting that was dearest of any voice that she could possibly hear.
As her senses sharpened, she realised to a sense of huge relief that, in fact, she was in her own bedroom and that she had somehow come home. Lauren could see Yvonne's smiling face hovering somewhere above her and diagonally to the side. The tone of voice was pure Yvonne, loud banter merging into infinitely gentle and warm-hearted mother love.
"So I am? How did I get here? I don't remember. I feel rough," Mumbled Lauren. Last night's memories were like a jigsaw that was hopelessly jumbled up. No fragment was sensibly attached to anything else.
"So you bloody ought to be. You put away enough booze last night so that Cassie and Roisin had to carry you up the stairs. Nothing like making up for lost time."
"I swear never to touch another drop."
"So they always say till the next time. Which was why you've got a cup of black coffee, a tumbler of water to stop you dehydrating and a glass of Alka Seltzer."
Lauren managed to squint at what looked like a tray and gradually eased her way up onto the pile of soft pillows. This definitely is not Larkhall as all she got was a flattened token effort of a head support.
"You don't have to get up yet, Lauren. Take your time."
Yvonne's eyes were filled with tenderness for the house to be filled up with her nearest and dearest. Last night finally ended up as a loving reunion where those still separated from them were still missed but Cassie and Roisin, Nikki and Crystal and Josh were dearer than anything. Her natural instincts drew others to her to share that spirit in her which overflowed from her and which she longed to give to others. Her Lauren was back home and she would realise all her dreams of this moment. It was strange that she had longed for this moment for so long that it wasn't quite real that it had come to pass at last. Lauren looked peaceful, so innocent in a way that she could not express in words.
"That's great. No morning call after all."
Yvonne laughed out loud but remembered her own reactions when she first got out. She had got used to freedom, including the freedom to be on your own when sometimes you don't want it. She discreetly left Lauren to it for when she was ready to face the day. As she sat downstairs, she could sense her presence above and that gap in her house was at last filled. Meanwhile Lauren propped herself up in bed and she sipped her first cup of ground coffee. It tasted delicious to her taste buds, so used to stewed tea, and this told her what the taste of freedom meant. So did lying in bed for as long as she decided and nobody else.
Glancing to one side beside her bed, she had one more treat for the senses and that was to see Trigger sprawled full length, a huge black shape with one ear cocked for when one of his long lost mistresses would surface. He resolved to be as good as gold, at least for the first day, and to watch protectively over her while she goes through the strange process of "getting up." He knew that dogs are much more sensible, one quick stretch and frisk around and he's always up and ready in no time and he had to tolerate these strange human quirks but it was worth it for his mistress to be back and to add to his pack of which he was undisputed leader. He could afford to lie there, be cool and radiate quiet authority, as you need a human around or two to pose for. It did his ego good.
An hour later, Lauren padded downstairs in her nightie and slippers, looking forward to the delicious luxury of being able to slob around for whenever she felt like and settled down in an armchair. She was beginning to feel as if she was attached to the house or it to her and didn't feel quite so transplanted there. Trigger padded downstairs likewise, sometimes brushing against Lauren and criss crossing in front of her and plonked himself down right next to her. An utter feeling of peace and tranquillity and completeness descended on the house, far different from Yvonne's feelings of misery and loneliness last winter.
"Have you thought what you'll do first today?"
"I don't know," Lauren answered, her mind fogged. She was used to looking watchfully around her, what might come round the corner, what scheme that evil cow Natalie Buxton might have in mind or what pathetic remark Bodybag might come out with. It would take her time to adjust to the reality of being able to drop her guard and be able to do anything she wanted……. "I think I might go for a swim in the pool if that is OK."
"What's stopping you, Lauren?"
"Nothing….I guess," Came her confused reply. "……..I think I'll take it easy and hang around a bit. Nothing too drastic, first day."
"Sounds fine."
Yvonne was conscious that Lauren seemed very tentative, very uncertain in her movements with none of that edge and precision that she was used to from more prison visits than she cared to remember. Instead of that splurge of conversation that poured out from both of them in that short, precious period of visiting time, their conversation was sporadic and dealt with commonplace matters like the weather today. She looked closely at Lauren with infinite understanding. It started to dawn on Yvonne that Lauren was here in her house with no threat or fear of the police suddenly descending on them for that period of madness in Lauren's life. She blinked as it didn't seem quite real.
"Have a read of the magazines."
Yvonne offered her the range of what she had in the magazine rack. Lauren approached it very tentative, surprised at the range of them, instead of some dog eared fifty times read last week's edition of all the gossip. She couldn't make up her mind which one to pick for a full five minutes.
"I think I'll have a swim in the pool," Lauren said at length. That felt a little stranger to her to be able to say it, even more as this was something that she would not have thought of as being a decision.
"I'll sit out on the terrace."
Trigger's sharp ears picked up the indication of a decision. Thank God someone had made up their minds or else he would have to indulge himself in a spot of animal type hinting. He didn't want his long lost mistress out of his sight for one second in case those nasty humans come back and drag her away again. He wouldn't put it past them.
Lauren took in the full view of the back garden for the first time and the sheer space took her breath away. The swimming pool and the steps down to them looked like a picture she had seen in some celebrity magazine at Larkhall, impossibly remote and glamorous except that she was now living the dream. But this was the home she had grown up in, she reasoned to herself. In her confusion, a distant memory floated to the surface of how Denny looked when she came here for the day. The poor kid must have felt as if she were the poor relation being overwhelmed by luxury beyond her dreams. She didn't think she showed it but she must have been a moody stuck up cow who picked a fight with mum and all for falling in love with Karen or Miss Betts or whoever she's supposed to call her now. It all happened in that very same back garden until she dragged mum away somewhere. How absurd she must have seemed as mum had the good taste to fall for someone who isn't a complete egotistical bastard. Now she knew how Denny felt.
"She is going to be all right, Denny I mean," Lauren appealed to her mother.
"She's in good hands. Remember, she's got Karen and Nikki to keep an eye on her. I know that you feel guilty at being in the lap of luxury while Denny's stuck inside."
Lauren nodded assent. She could not put it into words.
"I seriously wonder if that was part of the reason why Nikki went back there. I understand her perfectly if she did. I still think of the Julies stuck there year after year……" Yvonne said in a reflective mood, staring at the far horizons.
"…….now you have a good swim and enjoy yourself. I'll sunbathe on the terrace."
She added as she had spoken many times before, taking Lauren's towel off her.
Lauren stepped forward to the edge of the pool and plunged into the pool with one elegant forward movement. Christ, it was fresh and bracing. She laughed as she emerged and rapidly struck out to swim the length of the pool while Trigger looked onwards. She hadn't swum in ages but it felt so good. The water flowed past her in some kind of cleansing process and her arms and legs pulled her through the water in the best-known exercise that really tones up her muscles. The blue sky shone overhead and she had fragmentary glimpses of her mother, Trigger, the house in the background and the splendid greenery of her back garden. The sharp bracing water dispelled the last foggy traces of too much booze last night. She was young and alive and, thank god, she had a future. She owed it to the others to make the most of it.
Meanwhile Yvonne made her way back to the recliner and stared at Lauren while she splashed around in the pool. Trigger, torn between which human to watch over, eventually lay on his side, his legs splayed out in different directions keeping one eye on the pool and mopping up the heat. Yvonne stretched herself along the length of her recliner and popped her sunglasses on and read odd bits out of the magazine but her eyes kept darting occasionally to the pool much as Trigger did. It felt like a normal day to her or the sort of normality that she had striven for.